Voluntary organisations were sent 90-day notice letters at the end of last month informing them of changes to service level agreement funding, which youth organisations estimate will leave about 20 of them worse off.
The 0-25 Network, a partnership of voluntary youth organisations, is conducting an analysis of the impact on the voluntary sector, which it estimates as a loss of 200,000 to 250,000.
The move follows a reorganisation of Liverpool youth services, which involves five separate neighbourhood committees making spending decisions in their area.
Funding is determined by a new formula, taking into account numbers of young people, levels of deprivation and levels of antisocial behaviour (YPN, 9-15 November 2005, p5).
Gill Bainbridge, chair of the 0-25 Network, said: "When the council needed to make savings, because it had a no-redundancy policy for its staff, it cut the voluntary sector. When funding is withdrawn, it will leave a big hole in small organisations' budgets, which affects their capacity to exist at all."
Opposition councillors will call upon the council leader to withdraw the 90-day notice letters at tonight's meeting of Liverpool City Council.
Warren Bradley, leader of the council and executive member responsible for the youth service, defended the move: "If we carry on funding as we have, we will be funding areas where there are no kids."
Bradley said the council would invite redundant voluntary sector workers to apply for posts, but Bainbridge said: "We're not talking about like-for-like posts."
